1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to operating system installation, and more specifically, to a method and apparatus for installing an operating system in a host system.
2. Background of the Related Art
In a host system, operating system (OS) installation is a time consuming process. In a typical installation process, a user starts up an OS image and the OS installation process is started. During the OS installation process, an OS installation program requests that the user input parameters through the human computer interaction interface, such as the parameters about diskette format policy, time zone setting, language selection, etc. For some hardware environments, the OS installation program requests that the user install a specific driver, for example a redundant array of independent disks (RAID) driver, etc., otherwise, the installation will not proceed. Usually, it will take from 30 minutes to 90 minutes in order to complete an OS installation process. During that time, the user has to wait in front of the host to answer the questions from the OS installation program.
Due to drawbacks of the time and human resource consumption for the above process, a method of unattended OS installation was developed, in which, after the user starts up an OS image and the OS installation process is started, the user can leave the host, without waiting in front of the host. The OS installation process does not need user interaction. Rather, the unattended OS installation method may use an answer file that provides all required user parameters, drivers and/or application programs.
Existing unattended OS installation methods require the answer file and the drivers to be stored on an external storage device. In that solution, an extra external storage device (usually the storage can be a USB storage device, a removable hard disk or a floppy disk, etc.) is used to store the answer file and drivers missing from the OS image.